Ok so I decided to play around with ubuntu 10.04 and it was fun for a little but then it got messed up somehow and I traced the problem back to the grub bootloader. I was able to remove grub by launching windows repair and trying "bootsect /nt60 C:" and "bootrec /fixmbr." after this windows refused to boot so I went back to repair and tried start-up repair. This claimed to have fixed the problem and so I tried booting again and it still didn't work. I have one western digital 160Gb hdd, one seagate barracuda 1Tb hdd, and one barracuda in the 1.5Tb flavor. the 160Gb has windows on it and the 1.5Gb used to have linux.
If you can, just reinstall Windows. Also, if you can, use Ubuntu to back up your stuff to another source.
i'd prefer not to reinstall windows also ubuntu isn't accessible because of grub
[QUOTE={ABK}AbbySciuto;22995180]If you can, just reinstall Windows. Also, if you can, use Ubuntu to back up your stuff to another source.[/QUOTE]
How extremely extreme.
What's the error it gives?
I have the DVD it's an OEM copy of win7 home premium
[QUOTE=Eddiesax;22995512]I have the DVD it's an OEM copy of win7 home premium[/QUOTE]
Ok what error does it give on trying to boot into Windows.
I get the blinking underscore...and a black screen
When you installed Windows did you install it to an existing partition or an unallocated space?
unallocated I bought the WD 160Gb specifically for windows 7
[QUOTE=Eddiesax;22995884]unallocated I bought the WD 160Gb specifically for windows 7[/QUOTE]
So you installed Windows 7 onto a blank harddrive?
Have you tried setting that harddrive to the first boot device in BIOS/Quick boot menu?
yes
Yes to both?
yes
Have you tried getting into the recovery console and using this command:
bootcfg /scan ?
[editline]10:35PM[/editline]
Without the question mark.
no what does it do?
It's supposed to scan for existing windows installations.
It should add it to the bootcfg, if not you're going to have to manually add it. Not sure on the correct syntax, but it might be along the lines of
[code]bootcfg /add multi(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows="Microsoft Windows 7" /noexecute /fastdetect[/code]
[editline]10:48PM[/editline]
Scratch that, try
bootcfg /rebuild
it gave me an error for improper syntax for bootcfg /scan
Did you try "bootcfg /rebuild"?
bad syntax again
Try just bootcfg /?
If it says bad syntax, we're going to have to look for other ways to resolve this.
Also, did the recovery console detect a installation of windows?
I would say when you uninstalled linux you uninstalled, Guessing here, Grub a boot manager. Which replaces the windows boot manager. insert your windows 7 disc goto repair and there should be something like "detect errors" or something if it doesn't automatically detect the lack of the boot manager.
Ah, yes bootloader troubles are always fun. GRUB is so easy to break too. Since you say you have two hard drives, I'd reinstall Linux so you get a working bootloader (unless you can just repair GRUB, good luck with that) and then I would think it would give you access to your Windows drive again.
[editline]03:58AM[/editline]
[QUOTE=wingless;22996998]I would say when you uninstalled linux you uninstalled, Guessing here, Grub a boot manager. Which replaces the windows boot manager. insert your windows 7 disc goto repair and there should be something like "detect errors" or something if it doesn't automatically detect the lack of the boot manager.[/QUOTE]
I think that's exactly what happened.
Actually wingless's recommendation is far superior.
Ya it didnt like it again
idk about the installation
[QUOTE=4rawrs2;22997006]
I think that's exactly what happened.[/QUOTE]
it is.
[QUOTE=wingless;22996998]I would say when you uninstalled linux you uninstalled, Guessing here, Grub a boot manager. Which replaces the windows boot manager. insert your windows 7 disc goto repair and there should be something like "detect errors" or something if it doesn't automatically detect the lack of the boot manager.[/QUOTE]
Try this one Eddie.
[QUOTE=wingless;22996998]I would say when you uninstalled linux you uninstalled, Guessing here, Grub a boot manager. Which replaces the windows boot manager. insert your windows 7 disc goto repair and there should be something like "detect errors" or something if it doesn't automatically detect the lack of the boot manager.[/QUOTE]
would you perchance be referring to the startup repair option?
[QUOTE=Eddiesax;22997159]would you perchance be referring to the startup repair option?[/QUOTE]
That would be the one. From previous experiences I think it sometimes auto detects the problem.
Funnily enough, I've had a similar issue.
Except that I made it worse, because W7 is not installed on the Primary Master, it's on the Secondary Master disk. Now, when W7 installs it puts the bootloader on the primary disk - after formatting that disk for use with Linux, it turns out I deleted the entire bootloader itself, and since formatting the disk BACK to NTFS (obviously still bereft of bootloader) the repair tool just tells me it can't do anything.
So, looks like I'm going to have to handle this one myself. Bootrec commands complain about "element not found", and the solution for that is to use Diskpart to select the correct W7 disk (and partition), set that as the active drive and exit. Then I should be able to write a new bootsector if the repair tool fails again.
I guess you could try this.
Reinstall ubuntu, install W7 to a new partition so you have two W7 partitions and then remove the ubuntu partition since grub should be gone now and then just remove the 2nd W7 partition and then merge the unused data with your main partition.
I can't think of any other ways at the moment.
it told me that there wasnt a valid partition table or something and then said it fixed it
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